The Scandinavian Open was the vacation I should've taken

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The Scandinavian Open was the speedgolf vacation I should have taken

Last week, Rob Hogan called the Irish Open format the future of speedgolf.

One week later, Sweden offered a completely different answer.

But the more I think about it, the less I believe these events were answering the same question.

Rob is trying to create a version of speedgolf that people want to watch. He wants racing. He wants position changes. He wants something an ESPN viewer can understand without first completing a minor in speedgolf scoring. Sometimes that means one club. Sometimes it means elimination racing. Sometimes it means some poor schmuck standing in the line of fire to get a camera on the madness.

Speedgolf Sweden was solving a different problem: How do you create a speedgolf trip that people cannot stop talking about when they get home?

The Scandinavian Speedgolf Open kept traditional strokes-plus-minutes scoring. The innovation was everything around it: an international field, 100,000 SEK in prize money, lodging and meals together, a golf resort closed to the public, two rounds on Saturday, a proper awards dinner that evening, then a sponsor-and-volunteer ProAm on Sunday.

This was not the first attempt at a destination speedgolf weekend, but it may have been the best one yet.

And I do not think the ideal speedgolf event needs to split the difference between Ireland and Sweden. The ideal event needs a strong point of view. Rob had one. Sweden had one. There is plenty of room in this sport for events that look different, feel different, and reward different skills.

That is a much healthier future than deciding every tournament must be the same.

The results

Scandinavian Speedgolf Open | LinksGolf Öland, Sweden | June 27 | (full results)

Course records:
¹ Emily Mollard set the women’s course record in Round 1 (130:23).
² Marko Kuningas set the senior course record in Round 2 (130:57).

Will Robson is definitely a problem now

Last week, I said Will Robson was becoming a problem.

I would like to amend that statement.

Will is a problem.

He won Sweden with the lowest two-round golf total in the men’s field: 80 and 79. He ran both rounds in under 46 minutes. And his two speedgolf scores were 124:45 and 124:46.

One second apart.

That is almost offensively steady.

Right now, my top three European men are Will, James Hardy, and Carl Palmberg, in some order. Luke Willett is right there too, even though he did not have his best stuff in Sweden.

And the chase pack is not far behind. Carl finished second. Alexandre Arguel beat Rob Hogan for third by four seconds. James was another 46 seconds back. Ville Heinonen and Luke followed.

Then most of them went directly to Roissy and started throwing down absurd numbers at the French Open. As I write this, James has opened with 119:54. Ville shot 123:40. Rob shot 124:50. Will shot 125:16.

Europe is not short on contenders.

What we still do not know is how they compare with the top tier from New Zealand.

I can’t shake my suspicion that the Kiwis will be a couple of minutes faster and a couple of golf shots better than the Europeans when Worlds arrives in November. Last year at the U.S. Open, Robin Smith beat second-place Luke Willett by more than 12 minutes over two rounds. Will and Jim Davis were farther back.

That gap has to shrink before I believe the Europeans have a real chance at the Worlds podium.

The good news is that we may not have to wait until November. Jonathan Flietstra says Will, Robin, and Carl Palmberg are playing the U.S. Open later this month.

Assuming Robin’s back is healthy, we’ll be getting a proper head-to-head test.

Did 36 holes in one day favor the runners?

My theory going into Sweden was that 36 holes in one day would unfairly favor the pure runners. Golfers would lose their legs. Runners would keep running. Nature would heal.

That is not what happened.

If I had to name the three strongest pure runners in the field, I would probably start with Luke, Riley, and Ville. None of them produced a breakout second round.

Luke shot 85 both times, but slowed from 42:54 to 45:26. Riley went from a tournament-low 122:20 to 136:23, adding 11 golf strokes and three minutes. Ville actually ran 15 seconds faster in Round 2, but took two more golf strokes.

So no, Sweden did not produce the runner takeover some people expected.

But I am not ready to kill the theory entirely. LinksGolf Öland was a long, hard par 74 with dry fairways and thick rough. Fatigue did not merely make you slower. It made golf mistakes expensive. On an easier course—where a tired swing doesn’t send your ball into a Scandinavian wilderness sanctuary—the running advantage might show up differently.

For this course, on this day, the complete speedgolfer won.

The podium that almost was

The official men’s podium was Will, Carl, and Alexandre. It was also very close to being something else.

Rob Hogan started before his assigned time (which I’ve never seen anywhere!). The rules said he should return to the first tee and restart with a one-stroke penalty. He did not return.

(This does not surprise me in the least, having seen Rob play. Once he’s off the tee, nothing can distract him.)

The rules committee assessed a two shot penalty. Rob appealed, and they reduced the penalty to one. That remaining stroke mattered. Rob officially finished four seconds behind Alexandre. Remove it, and Rob is third by 56 seconds.

James Hardy’s what-if might hit close to home for some of us…

He reached the par-three 18th in position to finish second, found his ball in the fescue, and decided to play it rather than take a drop. He barely escaped, then managed to hit the next shot into a bunker, where it came to rest uncomfortably close to the lip. Quadruple bogey 7 on the card. Yikes.

Mikael Palmberg’s post-round math was brutal: take the drop, make bogey, save three strokes, beat Carl for second by 24 seconds.

Of course, every golfer can build an alternate life from the shots they should have taken back. The result is the result.

But when second through fifth are separated by less than three minutes, one false start and one stubborn decision from the fescue become more than a footnote.

🎥 WATCH: Alexandre Arguel’s Scandinavian Open highlights

Emily all day—again

Emily Mollard beat her closest competition by more than an hour. Her opening 79 in 51:23 produced a 130:23 course record, and she backed it up with 131:37 in the afternoon.

🔥 WATCH: Emily Mollard’s Viral Scandinavian Open highlights with 17k shares on Instagram!

Here’s a comparison that still tells you something: Emily’s first round was better than 15 of the 30 Elite Men’s rounds played that day. Her two-round total would have placed ninth in the men’s field.

Only three women started in Sweden, which was fewer than expected. But I am not ready to call that a participation problem. Bev Fentiman was injured, and the French Open—one of the best-attended events for women on the calendar—came one week later.

The real test comes at Worlds. Last year we could identify six legitimate women’s title contenders. If New Zealand gives us 8-12, that would be meaningful growth.

Emily also achieved the dream of every emerging-sport athlete: national television.

Sort of.

Swedish public broadcaster SVT came to the course during an orange heat warning. They interviewed Emily for about 15 minutes. Then the segment used the part where she said her biggest challenge was keeping sweat out of her eyes.

Emily thought she was getting sports press.

The producers were making a weather story.

No harm done. News producers arrive with a story they want to tell, and sometimes your athletic achievement becomes supporting evidence that Sweden is hot today.

The Swedish countryside received 194 golf balls

The course was hard enough that Filip “SpeedStache” Beerens started asking everyone how many balls they lost.

Final count: 194 golf balls across 28 players and two rounds.

That is seven balls per player for the weekend, or roughly 3.5 per round. Players were reportedly carrying six to eight balls before teeing off, which is less a golf strategy than an evacuation plan.

When I congratulated Marko Kuningas on his senior course record, he quipped: “Thanks Adam! Are you referring to the record for most lost balls during one speedgolf round?” (He lost 9.)

Runa led the environmental-donation rankings with 14 total. Marko and Timo Eskeli lost 13 each.

Rob Hogan lost zero, playing with a 5-iron as his longest club.

Marko won the improvement award by going from nine lost balls to four. SpeedStache actually improved from seven to one but nobly recused himself from his own competition.

Integrity in sport is alive and well.

Adventures in organizing

The event used ten stationed scorekeepers rather than placing one in a cart with every athlete. Speedgolfers are accustomed to reporting every hole immediately, and playing 36 holes on a hot day, not everybody remembered what they shot. The players ultimately agreed to trust the scorekeepers’ records rather than their own post-race memories.

But this is a recurring theme in speedgolf tournaments: not enough golf carts and not enough volunteers to record every score as it happens. The case for Professor Chris Hundhausen’s watch fleet is growing stronger all the time…

One mystery remains: the official results mark Carl’s second-round 123:49 as the Elite Men’s course record, even though Riley’s first-round 122:20 is lower. Riley: “they’ll be hearing from my lawyer!”

The best part happened after the racing

The normal rhythm of a two-day speedgolf tournament is familiar.

You race Saturday. You hang out Saturday night, but not too much. Almost no alcohol. No rabble-rousing. Everyone knows the final round is waiting in the morning, so the adults (and let’s face it—that’s all of us) make the responsible decision and go to bed.

Then you race Sunday. Awards happen around noon. Hotel checkout has already passed. You pack your things, still sweaty from the round, and begin whatever planes-trains-automobiles sequence gets you home.

Sweden put both rounds on Saturday.

That was physically demanding for players, volunteers, and scorekeepers. But when the racing ended, it ended.

The farewell dinner could actually be a farewell dinner.

Players described a beautiful awards ceremony with the sun setting over the Baltic Sea and Thomas Örvén (pictured) presiding over the evening. Nobody had to calculate how a second glass of wine would affect their strokes gained putting. Nobody had to pretend they were leaving the party early because they were “just a little tired.”

That sounds vastly preferable.

Thomas deserves enormous credit. He closed LinksGolf Öland to ordinary play from Friday until Sunday lunch and handed the resort to speedgolfers, their friends, and their families. Players stayed together. They ate together. They jumped into the Baltic Sea between rounds. Almost everyone I contacted mentioned his generosity.

But this was not a one-man production. The Speedgolf Sweden team—most visibly Mikael Palmberg, Johan Larsson, and Joakim Wikland—dared to design this schedule.

Mikael tells me Thomas made a three-year handshake commitment to the event. The next ambition is to double the field and double the prize money.

I hope they pull it off.

📸 SEE: Mikael Palmberg’s Scandinavian Open photo journal

Here’s the part that hurts: other U.S. players and I did the math before the event. For most of us, attending the Scandinavian Open would have cost roughly the same as attending this year’s U.S. Open.

I chose to stay home.

Now that I have heard about the closed resort, the shared meals, the Baltic Sea, the sunset dinner, and one of the strongest fields of the year, I regret that decision.

Rob Hogan is still trying to build the speedgolf event people most want to watch.

Sweden may have built the one people most want to attend.

And by the way, if you’re looking for a vacation in the good old USA, I’ll gently remind you that the Kentucky Speedgolf Open was my first and is still my favorite event on the US calendar. You won’t feel at home when you’re hoofing it up the steep hill after #8, but you’ll feel like family after you’re done.

The French Open is moving fast

The first round of the French Speedgolf Open is complete at Golf International de Roissy, and the leaderboard is absurd.

Roissy covers 5.2 miles if you hit it straight. Ville Heinonen ran it in 45:40. James Hardy was 14 seconds behind him.

Forty-five-minute rounds. Over 5.2 miles. While playing golf.

That is insane.

Round 1 leaderboard

Elite Men

Elite Women

🎥 WATCH: Kathy Leppard’s Round 1 highlights—including a sweet up-and-down on 18

Round 2 is Saturday, so consider every sentence above temporary.

Readers respond to the Irish Open, including an ambitious proposal

Last week’s Irish Open issue generated some thoughtful comments, and one unhinged ad-hominem.

Astute reader Tim Rehwald went several steps further and wrote a complete alternative-format proposal.

Tim’s format begins with a short running race carrying their golf clubs. The players then enter a chute and—one every 30 seconds—begin an 18-hole speedgolf leg. After golf, each athlete waits according to their golf score—Tim’s suggested test is 30 seconds per stroke above a base of 64—then begins a final 1.5-to-two-mile pursuit run.

In other words, if you shoot 80, you wait 8 minutes to start the run. If you shoot 90, you wait 12 minutes—so your golf score matters.

First person across the line wins.

I applaud Tim for taking the time to think through the problem and bring a genuinely original idea to the table. And I agree that the definitive race finish could be satisfying. No arithmetic. No waiting for a player three groups back to post. The winner breaks the tape.

But honestly? I think it would be dangerous, and I suspect it would ultimately feel unsatisfying to many speedgolfers.

The reward for winning the opening run is enormous. You reach the first tee first and hit into an empty golf course. Everyone behind you is entering a course with other players ahead, passing decisions, and golf balls flying through shared space.

To win, you would need to be fast and fearless.

Tim knows there’s a safety concern. His proposal includes passing rules, shot penalties, and protective headgear. But once protective headgear enters the golf rules, I begin to wonder whether Australia has already solved this problem.

🪖 WATCH: The crazy Australian version—with helmets

Tim is not pretending the proposal is simple. As he told me:

I agree it’s complex, but that was the inevitable outgrowth of trying to solve the competing requirements associated with a good solution. On the plus side, there are companies that manage triathlon events for a living and it should be easy for them to handle what I’m proposing. If it does nothing more than spur better ideas, it’s all good!

That last sentence is exactly right.

Read Tim’s full proposal, then send him your questions, refinements, or proposed liability waivers at tjrehwal@icloud.com.

Speedgolf websites are growing up

The baddest national speedgolf organization in the world finally has a serious website.

Speedgolf New Zealand now has a proper national front door with an explanation of the game, local contacts, events, and volunteer registration for November’s World Championships.

And my favorite part is that the first step on its “Join or Get Involved” sequence is to join this email list and download the Speedgolf Starter Pack! An excellent recommendation. I’d expect nothing less from the illustrious hosts of the 2026 World Championships.

Coffee is for amateur journalists

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This week in speedgolf media

🌶️ Luke Willett reviews the Scandinavian Open: “You saucy little beast”. A compact player-eye view of the course, the event, and the atmosphere on Öland.

🥸 SpeedStache takes speedgolf somewhere fantastic. Filip Beerens’ Scandinavian Open reel makes a strong case for choosing tournaments partly by where the sport can take you.

🤝 Tee30Golf pitches golf as business networking. They also offer speedgolf. Maybe the path to converting a few business owners begins with networking golf—and ends with a pair of soggy running shoes at 7:30am.

Upcoming Speedgolf

Find your next speedgolf tournament or meetup on Speedgolf Directory.

This week, we (Codex and I) shipped a big update to the meetup page, just in time for Kathy Leppard to announce her weekly meetup starting July 11th.

• Jul 11 — Kentucky Speedgolf Open
  🇺🇸 GlenOaks Golf & Country Club · Prospect, KY
  A two-day GlenOaks showdown for players who want one of the toughest, most established tests on the U.S. speedgolf circuit. Sign up »

• Jul 12 — Hope - Torslanda Links Speedgolf Open
  🇸🇪 Torslanda Links · Göteborg, Vastra Gotaland
  A coastal Gothenburg stop that pairs city-links character with a welcoming format, giving Sweden’s west coast a distinct speedgolf date of its own. Sign up »

• Jul 12 — Wellington Oostende Speedgolf
  🇧🇪 Wellington Golf Oostende · Oostende, West Flanders
  A coastal 9-hole sprint on a former hippodrome, where sea air, short turf, and Belgian tour energy make for a very different kind of round. Sign up »

• Jul 24 — 10th U.S. Speedgolf Open
  🇺🇸 Temecula Creek Golf Club · Temecula, CA
  A chance to play the flagship championship of American Speedgolf in a setting that still feels welcoming, fun, and unmistakably Southern California. Sign up »

• Jul 26 — ECPG Zwijnaarde Speedgolf
  🇧🇪 ECPG (Zwijnaarde) · Ghent, East Flanders
  A compact castle-side sprint near Ghent, ideal for players who love precise 9-hole speedgolf and almost no wasted motion. Sign up »

• Jul 26 — Speedgolf Hokkaido Open
  🇯🇵 Golf5 Country Bibai Course · Bibai, Hokkaido
  Japan’s northern 18-hole tour stop offers sunrise-start speedgolf, a full-length test, and the feeling of the sport stretching beyond its usual hubs. Sign up »

What’d I miss?

Anything I should’ve mentioned but didn’t? Anything coming up you want to see highlighted?

Hit reply and let me know. I read every message.

Adam

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